HUNTSVILLE — "Weaknesses exist in controls and procedures in the Sheriff's office."

The Missouri State Auditor's Office noted in their recent check of the county that Randolph County Sheriff Mark Nichols' office used $27,035 in commissary sales funds to make purchases that were unauthorized by the Randolph County Commission in 2012.

Nichols' department maintains the profits from commissary sales outside of the county's treasury. These funds are used for the benefit of Randolph County's inmates, as well as the sheriff's office.

"During 2012, purchases totaled $27,035 and included a restraint chair, prison supplies, cable television, online movie rental services, and phone services for the prison," the audit states. "These purchases were not approved by the County Commission and were not handled through the normal county procurement and budget process."

According to section 221.102 of the Missouri Revised Statutes (which took effect on Aug. 28 of this year), commissary profits are required to be deposited into the county's Inmate Detainee Security Fund.

As of Sept. 30, 2013, there were still approximately $6,700 in Randolph County commissary profits that needed to be distributed into said fund.

"We are planning to turn all commissary profits over to the County Treasurer at the beginning of the year," Nichols said.

It was also stated within the report that the Sheriff's office has not established an adequate segregation of accounting duties and does not perform a supervisor's review of said records ("The Sheriff's office manager is primarily responsible for receipting, recording, depositing and disbursing monies, and reconciling the bank accounts...If proper segregation of duties cannot be achieved, the Sheriff should implement a documented independent or supervisory review to ensure bank records are in agreement with accounting records."), that it does not always document the release or disposition of seized property ("For example, a firearm and compact disk of photographs were included on the seized property log, but could not be located. Case file records indicated the Prosecuting Attorney had authorized these items to be returned to their rightful owners."), that it does not have updated written agreements with other political subdivisions for the boarding of inmates ("The county boards inmates for the counties of Macon and Monroe and bills $35 per night per inmate. However, the most recent agreements were entered into in 2006 and specify a $30 billing rate per night per inmate."), and that Randolph County Clerk Will Ellis' office has not kept record of leave usage and balances within its office, leading to employees earning compensatory time after working 160 hours instead of the county policy's 171 hours ("By not following county policy, the county may be paying more overtime and compensatory time than required resulting in a greater financial burden for the county.").

Nichols noted in response that "duties of office personnel have been segregated," and that "The Randolph County Sheriff's office will implement a bi-annual inventory of seized property and evidence stored in the Randolph County Sheriff's evidence locker."

"The County Commission is responsible for entering into contracts regarding charges for boarding out of county prisoners," the commission said, in a joint response with Nichols. "While the County Commission voted to increase the daily rate from $30 to $35, as reflected in Commission minutes of June 24, 2010, and notified the counties involved, the actual contracts were not updated in a timely manner. This has been corrected and the updated contracts are on file."

The commission and clerk also noted that they are in the process of making changes to the county employee handbook to be in compliance and reflect their current practices.

"An accurate tracking system for all the departments is being implemented," they said, in a joint statement. "A quarterly statement is currently going out to all departments to confirm the tracking accuracy of compensatory time, overtime, sick time, and vacation time."